Present research in exercise physiology demonstrates the value for sedentary people in low intensity exercise undertaken for long periods of time. To this end, there is now an increase in work time at stand-up desks, and personal electronic fitness tracking devices now record cumulative hours spent walking and standing to meet motivational goals. A broad objective of the present invention is therefore to provide a comfortable means for individuals to benefit from low intensity exercise, and to provide this benefit in a way that is easily integrated into their existing lifestyles to facilitate long duration use.
Abdominal core strength is a fitness capability that is important for maintenance of mobility and prevention of back injury. A particular objective of the present objective is therefore to provide abdominal exercise while sitting, which may be combined with other long duration activities such as watching television, reading an e-book with automatic page turning, or working at a computer with voice activated commands.
In the prior art, a popular abdominal exerciser suitable for home or office use is a sit-up device such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,987 to D. Brown and U.S. Pat. No. 7,074,165 to K. Hodge et al. However, use of this type of device requires laying on a floor, which cannot be performed concurrently with other long duration activities. Other popular abdominal exercise products such as the Tony Little Ab Lounge Xtreme are effective but too intense for long duration use and are also incompatible with other user activities.
The present invention is a low elevation rocking chair that an individual may be comfortable sitting in whether or not its exercise function is used. Fitness rocking chairs in the prior art include a rocking glider disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 524,279 to J. Kottmann and U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,671 to W. McKinney and R. Barnes, but these are leg actuated, so do not engage the upper body muscles of a crunch type motion. Other non-rocking exercise chairs include U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,558 to D. Moon, U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,923 to W. Cameron et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,855,098 to A. Reitz et al., but these do not benefit from the inherent satisfaction of a natural rocking rhythm.
In the present invention, the armrests of the chair are configured to pivot in a way that provides a crunch type exercise motion. The resistance is provided by the user's own body weight with variation through differential leverage. A particular advantage is that armrest handle actuation also shifts the user's center of mass longitudinally, which in turn initiates a natural rocking motion by gravity. Because the seat height is low enough, this motion may also be opposed by negative leg resistance. The inertial dynamics of the resulting motion are inherently kinesthetically pleasurable. Alternatively, the configuration of the armrest handles is such that a user may benefit from an isometric exercise by simply holding them stationary in a conventional armrest position.